“You can’t go home again”
This popular phrase was one I heard
a lot and internalized while growing up.
I would often repeat it to my dad at his dismay; his thinking being that
I shouldn’t believe the statement because that would eventually lead me to leaving
home and never coming back. Low and
behold I have been in Baltimore for three years now.
With no idea where life will take
me at this point (Baltimore, Ohio, a yet unknown destination) I can understand
why my dad would try to encourage me not to buy into the sentiment of the
phrase; his hope being that he could keep his kids around the home he was able
to build. I still have a strong desire for
my family to one day be together again, with my parents fulfilling their duties
as grandparents while my siblings and I share in each other’s lives as we raise
families and grow old together. But life
is bound to take unexpected turns and I fear I am not in complete control and
can only do my best.
This phrase, for those who don’t
know, is from a book by Thomas Wolfe published in 1940 that was written to
explore the changing of American society in the 1920s/30s through a work of
fiction. The phrase then, “You can’t go
home again” is meant to express the idea that the flow of time forever changes
everything around us and that ‘going home’ or hoping to relive past moments and
memories is an impossible feat. Time
will always and forever keep moving forward, changing people and places so
radically that nothing in our past can be relived again in the present or
future. The best way forward then would
be to create a home of your own instead of trying to go back to the one in
which you came.
This leads me into my review of the
album Arrow released earlier this
year by the Heartless Bastards. Arrow is the 4th album from
this band and it is essentially an exploration into the idea of ‘Going Home’. Formed in 2003 in Cincinnati (O-H!), the
Heartless Bastards released their first record in 2005 titled Stairs and Elevators, their 2nd
in 2006 titled All This Time, and
their 3rd in 2009 titled The
Mountain.
I haven’t had a chance to dig into
their earlier work but their sound from those years has been described as a
gritty, garage type blues. Think The
Black Keys (I-O!) but with a female lead singer, more guitars, and a mix of
country, blues, hard rock, and some psychedelia thrown in. On Arrow, you can definitely hear the
influences all those different types of genres.
Upon my first listen I was
impressed with the classic rock and hard rock elements; hearing great rock
riffs on guitars is unique in this day and age but there are several songs on
the album that give the listener that thrill.
Arrow also has songs that are both contained and expansive in
scope. However, whether contained or
expansive, the instruments used to convey the emotions are standard for a
throwback type of rock band; drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar. You won’t hear any electronica or strings on
this album; to the joy for some or detriment to others.
The Heartless Bastards are led by
singer-songwriter/guitar player Erika Wennerstrom who has been the only
constant in the line-up of this band since their formation in 2003. She is joined on the record Arrow by bassist
Jesse Ebaugh, drummer Dave Colvin, and guitar player Mark Nathan. Before the creation of 2009’s The Mountain,
the original line up of the Heartless Bastards broke up. This is important to know because former
bassist Mike Lambig had a nine year relationship with Wennerstrom and the
break-up of the original band members coincided with Lambig and Wennerstrom
parting ways personally. But if
Fleetwood Mac has taught us anything, it’s that breakups between members in a
band can lead to good music. Most of the
songs off The Mountain detail the emotions and experiences of Wennerstrom after
the end of her nine year relationship to Lambig.
Arrow then picks up where The
Mountain left off. “The Mountain was me
going through some things after being in a relationship for nine years,”
Wennerstrom says. “This album is kind of
like me being comfortable again.” The
pursuit of becoming comfortable once again led Wennerstrom to visit friends and
family in Ohio (She grew up in Dayton), visiting the Catskills, spending time
alone in Arkansas, a lake cabin in the Allegahny Mountains, and a ranch in West
Texas. “I take a lot of trips to West Texas, and I’m
very inspired by the landscape… I feel like there’s a lot of space on Arrow and
lots of songs that were inspired by staying on a friend’s ranch out there.
There’s space in the music and space in the land”, says Wennerstrom.
This wanderlust that Wennerstrom
undertook can best be understood as a way for her to finally come to terms with
the emotional crisis that she had to deal with during 2009. The songs on Arrow paint this picture and
also tie back into the theme of ‘Going Home’; home in this sense being an
emotional place where she can finally let go of the past and find peace and
security. The song ‘Marathon’ starts the
album off with Wennerstrom observing a marathon that is taking place inside the
city limits and her thinking to herself “I ventured so far that I forgotten
what I was running from, and time it takes you so far and I am longing to be
back home”.
‘Parting Ways’ is the 2nd
song on the album (the first single to be released off the album but thank God
it isn’t the best song on the album as my First Single Hypothesis states that
if any albums best song is its first single, then that album is shit; hasn’t
failed yet). Check out the music video
for ‘Parting Ways’ as it is sure to get a chuckle even though the artistic aim
isn’t very high.
The first great song off Arrows is
‘Only For You’. ‘Only For You’ is a
mysterious song filled with a very nervous and cautious excitement. “I just don’t know what to do, my head is
such a cloud, I’m so tired of trying….it’s been a while since I felt this way
about someone….I will open my heart, only for you”. And this is where the contrast in songs off
Arrow is first noticeable.
It seems half of the songs on the
album attempt to tackle the major themes of the album with songs that fit the
mood of searching for a home (contemplative, melancholic, anxious, hopeful)
while the other half of the songs are distracting as the moods they capture
(which is to say they really don’t capture any certain mood and are just very
bland) has the effect of giving a jarring transition to the ears from the main
songs on the album. ‘Parted Ways’, ‘Got
to Have Rock and Roll’, ‘Simple Feeling’, and ‘Late in the Night’ are all
culprits. For me, they didn’t add
anything to the album and I usually skip them to listen to the other songs on
the album.
Other stand out songs that join
‘Marathon’ & ‘Only For You’ include ‘Skin and Bones’ and ‘Low Low
Low’. By far though, the two most
important songs on this record are ‘The Arrow Killed the Beast’ and the last
song on the album, ‘Down in the Canyon’.
If you really want to know what the album Arrow is about and the
emotions of Wennerstrom as she tries to overcome the fall out of her nine year
relationship and all that entails and find her ‘home’, then listen to these two
songs.
Both are the darkest and melancholic
songs on the album but at the same time the most impactful and real. ‘The Arrow Killed the Beast’ describes the
metaphorical killing of a beast; the beast being a psychological state inside
Wennerstrom. The main question then is
what is the arrow in the song that she is referring that finally kills the
beast inside of her, “A simple life out here in the country where the sky is
full of mystery….why don’t we go out, why don’t we head towards the sun.” Open to interpretation for sure.
‘Down in a Canyon’ closes the album on
what first seems like an unpleasant note.
Prior to ‘Down in a Canyon’ is the song ‘Low Low Low’, which (even
though you can’t tell from the title) is an up-beat, happy song. In ‘Low Low Low’ the listener is led to
believe that Wennerstrom has successfully killed the beast and exorcised her
demons and all is well in the bright sunshine, “I’m feeling the sun so warm on
my skin, things are turning around again”.
When ‘Down in a Canyon’ starts the
scene is completely different. No longer
are you traveling in the warm sunlight of the day, but instead you are
traveling through the darkness of a canyon.
Soon you find out by listening to the song that even though the beast
may be dead, there are certain moments of silence and solitude where the memory
of the beast comes through, “All this time we never saw the sun and now I’m
back here again”. However, unlike the
past, this feeling is fleeting in nature and “I have one less ghost in my heart
and things are turning around again. And
it feels like I never allowed you to let go…and now I, I will be home
tomorrow”.
The greatest strength of the Heartless
Bastards, as with any good band, is the ability of the band to be real and
honest. Wennerstrom’s songwriting is
never so over the top or complicated to have the average listener not be able
to connect to a song, nor is her song writing so simple that is doesn’t require
the listener to think.
“I wanted to be in Akron when I was young”…..Wait!....What?....She
wrote that lyric? Never mind, take back
everything I just wrote. That is a
complete lie. No one would ever want to
live in Akron lol.
Heartless
Bastards – Arrow – 6.5/10
